WWE: Official Name for New Year’s Day Event, More on Karrion Kross’ New Look, SummerSlam Notes

Aug 25, 2021

WWE Announces Official Name for New Year’s Day 2022 Event

WWE recently revealed that WWE Day 1 is the official name of their upcoming New Year’s Day event on January 1, 2022 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tickets for this event were announced to be going on sale starting on August 27th.

Official press release via the State Farm Arena:

WWE® KICKS OFF 2022 IN ATLANTA
WWE® will kick off the new year at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Saturday, January 1, 2022, marking the first time in history that a WWE pay-per-view event will be held on New Year’s Day. WWE Day 1 will stream live on the night of New Year’s Day at 8 pm ET exclusively on Peacock in the United States and on WWE Network everywhere else.
Tickets go on sale Friday, August 27 at 10 AM via Ticketmaster.com.
“I don’t know about you but I think New Year’s Trae would be a great name for the event, and I can’t think of a better way to bring in 2022 than with the WWE Universe,” said Atlanta Hawks All-Star Point Guard Trae Young, who exclusively announced the New Year’s Day event during tonight’s Friday Night SmackDown.
“State Farm Arena is a phenomenal venue with a long history of hosting world-class events,” said Scott Zanghellini, WWE Senior Vice President, Revenue Strategy & Development. “We’re excited to deliver this pay-per-view to the people of Atlanta and the many that travel to the city to celebrate New Year’s.”

Karrion Kross’ New Look Reportedly Merchandise-Based Decision

As noted before, this past Monday’s episode of WWE RAW featured Karrion Kross debuting a brand new entrance mask and gear look. Kross’ new look quickly generated a lot of ridicule online drawing unfavorable comparisons to Lord Humongous from the Mad Max film, former WWE tag team Demolition, The Executioner from classic N64 wrestling game WCW/nWo Revenge, and others.

The Mat Men Wrestling’s Andrew Zarian reported on Twitter that one of his sources within WWE stated that the reason for Kross’ new look was due to a merchandise-related decision. This source stated that “everything & everyone must be marketable. Toys, shirts, imaging, and accessories. You need to stand out to sell and this is how they sell.”

Spoke to a source regarding Kross’s new ring gear. His response :

“Everything & everyone must be marketable. Toys, shirts, imaging, and accessories. You need to stand out to sell and this is how they sell” pic.twitter.com/rooHCMowsO
— Andrew Zarian (@AndrewZarian) August 24, 2021

SummerSlam 2021 Notes – Google Searches, New Record Revenues & Views

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that this past Saturday’s SummerSlam 2021 event was the fourth most searched term on Google that day generating around 500,000 total searches.

WWE recently announced that this past Saturday’s SummerSlam event at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada broke two all-time company records for highest grossing revenue and most viewed for an event in SummerSlam history.

Official press release:

WWE^® Delivers Most-Viewed & Highest-Grossing SummerSlam of All-Time
08/24/2021
Annual Event Sets Records for Live Global Viewership, Gate Receipts, Indoor Attendance, Merchandise Sales, Sponsorships & Social Engagement
STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Following a weekend of record-setting metrics, WWE (NYSE: WWE) delivered the most-viewed and highest-grossing SummerSlam in the company’s history.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210824005507/en/
Highlights include:
* More people watched Saturday’s event live across Peacock and WWE Network than any other SummerSlam in the company’s history. The seven-figure global audience marked a 55% increase over 2020 and a 29% increase over 2019;
* The sell-out crowd of 51,326 broke SummerSlam records for indoor attendance and gate receipts. With tickets purchased by fans from all 50 U.S. states, Saturday’s live gate was more than four times greater than the last SummerSlam held with fans in attendance in 2019;
* Merchandise sales posted an increase of 155% over 2019;
* SummerSlam set a new sponsorship record, growing by 25% vs. 2019 and 18% vs. 2020;
* With more than four million views, Brock Lesnar’s return became WWE’s most-watched Instagram video of all-time – surpassing the video of John Cena’s return at Money In The Bank. In total, SummerSlam videos generated more than one billion views across all WWE social platforms during the week.